Ecommerce SEO for online stores: found where the revenue is
A thousand products in your online store, and still almost all your search traffic comes in on your own brand name. The revenue is with the people who type “espressomachine kopen” (buy espresso machine) without knowing you. My own Vizibly System sets up your category and product pages so they can be found for those buying search terms, in Google and in ChatGPT.
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Roy, SEO specialist and owner of Vizibly
Your category tree decides which search terms you can show up for
Your customer often starts broad: they type “beste espressomachine 2026” (best espresso machine 2026) and read advice articles. Then they search more precisely, on “espressomachine met bonenmaler” (espresso machine with grinder). Someone who searches like that knows what they want and is only deciding where to buy.
Google can only show them a page that exists. If you have no page for espresso machines with a grinder, you do not show up for that search term, however good your machines are. If the link to a subcategory only appears after a click in the menu of your online store, Google does not find that page either.
So SEO for an online store starts with the category tree, with the question of which pages are still missing for the terms people search for. You decide which categories get added.
vizibly@system:~/scan$ ./scan --menu --site=exampleshop
main categories in the source code: 5
subcategories in the source code:
first 0, after the change 42
the split across the branches is schematic, 5 and 42 are measured
In one store, only the five main categories were in the source code. After the change, 42 subcategories are in it too.
Six parts of SEO for your online store
The SEO work focuses on the categories of your online store where you earn the most, with the technical setup behind your filters as the basis and link building as the last step. Every day my own Vizibly System measures in Search Console what your category and product pages do. Every month I read those numbers and choose what changes on your store, after which the system carries out that change.
Keywords and category tree
Per product group, the system lays the search terms next to the category tree of your online store and sees where there is demand without a page, or where two of your own pages fight over the same term. Every term gets one page, and the categories with the most revenue per invested hour come first.
Read how to build an SEO strategyCategory and product copy
Copy above and below the products in your online store covers the search term and helps the visitor choose: size advice, material differences and frequently asked questions. The system writes that copy, and the length follows the product, because there is less to say about a screw than about a heat pump. Every text goes through a fact check on brand, size and material.
In a round of more than three hundred category titles, that check pulled out 55 errors, like old claims about brand or material that had carried over from the existing titles.
Read how to write SEO copyLinks from other sites
Category pages in a busy market usually only move forward once other sites link to you. The system looks per category for the sites that are about your products. A mention on a site like that counts when an AI tool puts together an answer, too.
Read where those links come fromThe technology behind your filters and menu
Filters on color, size or brand create endless URL variations in an online store. The system decides which filter pages Google should see, and gives your developer the instruction to put your subcategories in the source code instead of only after a click. The load time of your category and product pages is part of the measuring too, because speed counts in how Google judges a page.
Read what technical SEO isBrand pages with an intro of their own
People search for brand names, so the brand pages in your online store deserve more than a logo and a row of products: an intro of their own about what the brand makes and who it suits. The template underneath goes through a check as well.
At one store, almost no brand page had a usable description in Google. The cause was one setting in the template.
Rankings next to revenue and Shopping
Position 3 on a search term nobody buys on brings you nothing. The system ties rankings to traffic and to what ends up in the cart of your online store, and gives priority to categories with margin and stock. The search terms that already sell in your Shopping campaigns show which category deserves copy first. On a broad term, just the product type, an ad is often the faster route. On the more specific terms around it, SEO can do the work, and there a visitor costs you nothing per click.
Read how SEO and Google Ads work togetherSEO for product pages: what Google and your customer look at
In ecommerce SEO you work with three kinds of pages that can show up in Google. The category page picks up the broader buying term and leads on to multiple products, so it usually brings in the most per page. The brand page catches anyone searching on a brand name. The product page is for someone who already knows which model they want and searches for brand plus model name.
On those product pages, many stores still have the supplier’s text. If your page carries the same text as a hundred other stores, Google has no reason to show yours. With thousands of items you do not rewrite everything at once, so the system starts with your bestsellers and with the products that already get search traffic.
Measurement report · product page
Diagram, not a real store
What Google reads: product · price · stock · reviews
The title names brand, model and the attribute people search on, like the size or the capacity.
A text of its own about what the product does and who it suits, with the questions a buyer has beforehand.
Specifications in a table, so your visitor can compare and Google can read the attributes.
Price and stock are on the page and in the code, as structured data (Product and Offer). That lets Google show them with your search result. Through Google Merchant Center you offer the same data for free, so your products also show up in the Shopping tab without paying per click.
Reviews from buyers. With the same code, Google can show the stars with your search result, as long as the reviews are real: made-up ratings go against Google’s rules.
Colors and sizes get a canonical tag: a line in the code that says which version is the main page. That way near-identical pages do not get in each other’s way. How to set that up is covered in the article about canonical tags for product variants.
A category that does not rank: what the data showed
An online store with thousands of products and a few hundred categories. The most important category got no further in Google than page six.
01 · The assumption
The category page needs more links, from other sites and from within the store itself.
02 · What the data showed
The category page already had 268 internal links, against 31 for an advice article from the same store, and more sites linking to it as well. Yet that article ranked around position 7 on the main term, and the category around position 55.
03 · The approach
Every page gets one job. The advice article keeps the question about what to choose and links on to the store. The category focuses on the terms someone uses to buy, like brand and model. On the main term with “kopen” (buy) after it, Google was already showing the category page around position 13.
Measurement report · main term
Source: Search Console Aug 27 to Sep 23, 2026 · crawl Sep 2026
Advice article
31
internal links
around position
7
Category page
268
internal links
around position
55
The cause was in the search term itself. Someone who types only the product word first wants to know which type they need, so Google shows explanation. There were also two articles of the store’s own on the same term, so the store was competing with itself. And a specialist on top had about as many linking sites on one category page as this whole store combined. A few extra links to that one category would not have closed the gap.
I do not sacrifice a page that already ranks around position 7, like that advice article, just to get the category onto the same term.
The order is the same for every store. First I look in Search Console and in the search results at what is going on, and only then do I choose what happens.
Want to know what the data says about your online store?
REQUEST THE FREE QUICK SCANWorking on your store while someone else manages it
Most online stores run on a platform that someone else manages: a web builder, an agency or your own developer. The SEO work has to fit alongside that without breaking anything, and fixed agreements make that work.
If your online store is getting rebuilt, a migration plan belongs with it. During a rebuild the SEO plugin can disappear, and with it the place where hundreds of titles and descriptions live. You catch something like that with a list: which fields come along, which URLs get a redirect and what you measure before and after launch.
- Texts, titles and descriptions go through your store’s connection (API), in small steps.
- I first make a backup of every old value, and there is always a file ready to put everything back.
- I never send an empty field along. On some platforms an empty field falls back to the default template, and a batch with empty fields then wipes thousands of texts in one go.
- After every round the system checks live what is really on the page, and you get a log of what changed.
- What is in the code, like the menu or the templates, goes to your developer as an instruction. Choices about your range are up to you.
- Nothing goes live without your sign-off.
What SEO for your online store costs
Vizibly System
From €800
a month, cancel month to month
How many categories get attention and how much work goes into links depends on your market and your competition. After a short analysis of your online store you get an SEO proposal with a fixed monthly price.
What I guarantee is the way of working. Every month, improvements go onto your store, and in your dashboard you see what they did.
All rates are on the pricing page.
When online store SEO does nothing for you yet
SEO only pays for itself after a while. In these situations I advise you not to start.
- You sell products that are the same everywhere and sell on price alone. Then the cheapest seller wins, and copy does not close that gap.
- Your store moves to a new platform within a few months. Then you do the work twice; start after the move.
- Your margin cannot yet carry a monthly fee in the months before the traffic arrives. Work that out first.
- Your range is so small that there are hardly any categories to rank. Then strong product pages are enough, and a monthly engagement is too much of a good thing.
If you doubt whether it pays off for your store, I work it out with you in a first conversation.
What SEO delivered for other stores
See all case studies
You can read who I am and how I approach SEO for online stores on the page about me.
5.0on Google, 12 reviews
What clients say
“Roy built a beautiful online store for me. With SEO and link building, my revenue has grown by more than 300%!”
Tisiana Henricus
“Roy took on the SEO of our website, and we now rank better on Google. What I value most is that Roy doesn't just do the work, he also gives honest advice about what is and isn't worthwhile for a technical company like ours.”
Mike Fredriks
Weltechniek
“After several years of working together, finally a review on Google. Roy works effectively, is highly innovative (with AI) and helps on many fronts: visibility, tools, websites and other smart online projects!”
Anne Rademaker
Empact
Reviews translated from Dutch.
Questions about SEO for your online store?
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